Arkansas basketball: Muss reveals a philosophical pivot helped him earn No. 2 recruiting class of 2022

Arkansas basketball coach Eric Musselman just secured the best recruiting class in program history with two five-star players and a slew of four-star players.

Of those two five-star players, Arkansas-native Nick Smith, is the No. 6 prospect in the country. The other is Texas-native Jordan Walsh, ranked as the No. 7 overall prospect in the entire country.

Musselman recently sat down with legendary national sports broadcaster Jim Rome on his daily nationally-syndicated program, The Jim Rome Show, to talk shop.

How did Arkansas basketball coach Eric Musselman achieve the No. 2 recruiting class in the country?

To understand how difficult it is to be an architect of a college basketball roster, first you have to understand how rapidly the team can change.

“When you look at your roster,” Musselman started, “we basically look from year-to-year and even when you do that, there’s some things that can happen.”

Those things that can happen are anything from a player heating up and improving his NBA Draft stock or becoming disillusioned with his playing time and deciding to transfer out of the program— either way, it leaves Musselman and staff scrambling from the unexpected departure.